An Integrated Vertical Urban School For The 21st Century Hong Kong

Abstract

Urban population continues to rise at an unprecedented rate. High-rise commercial and residential developments continue to intensify the cityscape. While intensification increases the quality of life for most urban citizens. The same cannot be said for families with children living in the urban core. There are typically insufficient spaces in current urban schools to support this demographic shift. Imbalanced student enrollment across the city’s sub-divisions are becoming a more prominent urban problem. The growing urban population has begun to out-pace the provision of child-supportive infrastructure. Children living in the intensified areas attend over-crowded schools, compromising the quality of learning and the distribution of resources.

The research focuses on current urban development, school types and the situation of urban schools in developed cities, with a focus on the situations in Hong Kong S.A.R., China.

The relationship between teaching pedagogy and school building forms a foundation for the architectural type proposed by this thesis. The proposed school opens up a dialogue to discuss the roles of schools in the city with regards to the current urban conditions. It becomes an institution that reaches into the community and functions as an urban apparatus that connects the gaps between schools and the urban families’ lifestyle. The design manifests a flexible and adaptable learning environment at different scales. The design focuses on increasing the utilization of school facilities in the urban communities, at the same time, providing innovative group and individual learning spaces that are suitable for the pedagogical trends in the 21st century.